Una Semana Mas

There's one week left of the semester and I am not looking forward to leaving New York City, my love and my addiction. Nearly four months away from this sleepless city seem imbearable, especially because I have the most stereotypical feelings towards my hometown imaginable. Don't get me wrong, the ten people I love most in this world are in California, and I cannot wait to see them again...but now New York is home, and I am apprehensive about saying goodbye.
It's a wierd feeling for me, wanting to stay in one place. I have always had an addiction to change, uncomfortable being in the same place too long. Stuck in Rocklin, I compulsively rearranged my bedroom--taking down posters, unpacking my closet and pushing my furniture into the hallway every few months, creating a blank slate for my shaky nature.
Here, there is little time (or room) for rearraning furniture and even less for self-reflection and teenage angst (though Holden Caulfield could surely challenge that). No day in New York is the same and facing four months of homogeny is becoming increasingly unpleasant. Whether drinking wine with my seventy-six year old teacher and her clairvoyant friend or being approached by world-famous artists while shopping for groceries, I've done more and learned more in the past eight months here, than in my nineteen years of life. But, even with the occasional yells of "I love you!" from random transients, the city's millions of strangers are not able to give me the intangible love and support my familial home presents.
For the past couple of weeks, the two have blended. As part of my sister's class' "Flat Stanley," project, I have been carrying around a life-size cutout of her soon-to-be eight-year-old self. Every time I was at a place in the city I love (or would be cool to show-off to a second grade class) I was supposed to take a picture with it. Awkward, fun and enlightening, my adventures with Flat Emily reminded me how much I want to show the city to the people I love the most in this world (the flesh and blood versions).
But for now, I have to reconcile my feelings for California with my love for my family...and get in as much New York as possible over the next seven days (thank goodness for the 24 hour subway)!

Flat Emily